Bruins Lose Savard for Second Straight Season

The Bruins announced on Monday that they'll lose their best player for the remainder of the season.

The Boston Bruins announced on Monday that the team has placed two-time All-Star Marc Savard on the injured reserve, which means he will miss the remainder of the season and playoffs. The center will miss significant time for the second straight season due ongoing problems stemming from concussions.

The news comes comes just over two weeks after Savard’s latest concussion and during a press conference the 33-year-old said he was still experiencing post-concussion symptoms, which included headaches and dots.

The concussion came on Jan 22 against the Avalanche in Colorado when he hit his head against the glass following a hit by former team mate Matt Hunwick. It was his second concussion in just 10 months. He started off the year on the injured-reserve, missing the first 23 games of the season due to concussion symptoms which can be traced back to last March when he was blindsided by Matt Cooke. That hit caused him to miss the remainder of last season as well. Cooke’s hit led the NHL to outlaw blindside hits to the head. Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said the blindside hit rule has helped, but the league should look at other ways to help keep the players safe.

“It was a tough decision but it was the best decision to say I was done for the season and for the playoffs,” said Savard at the news conference.

When healthy, Savard is one of the Bruins’ top offensive threats. After his last full season in 2008-09 he finished with 25 goals and 63 assists, which was among the team leaders. With the lingering concussion issues it leaves many to wonder what Savard’s future is with the game but he said that he is not ready to start thinking about the possibility of an early retirement.

“I’m not going to make any decision about my future until I get more medical stuff done. I need to be patient,” he added.

In his 12-plus seasons in the NHL with the New York Rangers, Calgary Flames, Atlanta Thrashers and Bruins, Savard has tallied 207 goals and 706 points in 807 games.